Pros and Cons of Advanced Light weighting Materials

Although cars have been around for more than a century, the material they are made of (steel)
has mostly stayed the same. It has only been in the past few decades that advanced materials
ranging from aluminium and magnesium alloys, to carbon fiber composites, have made their
way into mass-produced passenger cars. Advanced materials are essential for boosting the fuel
economy of modern
automobiles while maintaining safety and performance. Because it takes less energy to
accelerate a lighter object than a heavier one, lightweight materials offer great potential for
increasing vehicle efficiency. A 10% reduction in vehicle weight can result in a 6 to 8 percent
fuel economy improvement. Replacing traditional steel components with lightweight materials
such as high-strength steel, magnesium (Mg) alloys, aluminium (Al) alloys, carbon fiber, and
polymer composites can directly reduce the weight of a vehicle’s body and chassis by up to
50 percent, and therefore reduce a vehicle’s fuel consumption. Using lightweight components
and high-efficiency engines enabled by advanced materials in one-quarter of the U.S. fleet
could save more than 5 billion gallons of fuel annually by 2030.
By using lightweight structural materials, cars can carry additional advanced emission
control systems, safety devices, and integrated electronic systems without increasing the
overall weight of the vehicle. While any vehicle can use lightweight materials, they are
especially important for hybrid electric, plug-in hybrid electric, and electric vehicles. Using
lightweight materials in these vehicles can offset the weight of power systems such as batteries
and electric motors, improving the efficiency and increasing their all electric range.
Alternatively, the use of lightweight materials could result in needing a smaller and lower-cost
battery while keeping the all-electric range of plug-in vehicles constant. Scientists already
understand the properties of these materials and the associated manufacturing processes.
Researchers are working to lower their cost and improve the processes for joining, modeling,
and recycling these materials.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) develops
advanced materials that help boost the fuel economy of modern vehicles, while maintaining
safety and performance. Further developing advanced materials requires increasing
understanding of their composition and morphology. Computational materials science should
bring advanced materials into the market much faster than in the past. Researchers can also
use computational approaches to create vehicle designs that maximize the potential of these
materials. To improve these tools, VTO works with the Lightweight Materials National
Laboratory Consortium (Light MAT), a network of 10 national laboratories with technical
capabilities highly relevant to lightweight materials development and utilization. Research and
development into lightweight materials is essential for lowering their cost, increasing their
ability to be recycled, enabling their integration into vehicles, and maximizing their fuel
economy benefits. Although many materials show promise in reducing vehicle weight, there
are pros and cons to each, ranging from production costs to property
deficiencies.

Advanced High-Strength Steel

Stronger and more ductile than typical steel, advanced high-strength steel could reduce
component weight by up to 25 percent, particularly in strength limited designs such as pillars
and door rings. It is generally compatible with existing manufacturing and materials currently
used in vehicles.

Pros: High strength, stiffness, formability, and corrosion performance, as well as low cost.
Cons: High cost, and wears out stamping molds faster than for lesser grades. Ductility
decreases as strength increases, adding issues in forming and joining. Challenges also include
design, component processing, and behavior in harsh environments.

Aluminum
Because of aluminum’s use in aerospace and construction, scientists have a good
understanding of its characteristics and processing. Manufacturers currently use it in vehicle
hoods, panels, and powertrain components, but face barriers in cost and manufacturing.
Manufacturers also face issues with joining, corrosion, repair, and recycling when they
combine aluminum with other materials. A lighter, more expensive alternative to steel,
aluminum is increasingly being utilized for hoods, trunk lids, and doors, and has the potential
to reduce weight by up to 60 percent.
Pros: Technology is fairly mature; good stiffness, strength, and energy absorption.
Cons: Higher cost than steel, joining to other materials, and limited formability
issues.

Magnesium
With the lowest density of all structural metals, magnesium alloys have the potential to reduce
component by weight up to 70 percent. Magnesium is presently used in castings for
powertrains or sub-assembly closures. The increased use of magnesium for automotive
applications is limited by several technical challenges. Even though magnesium (Mg) can
reduce component weight by more than 60 percent, its use is currently limited to less than 1
percent of the average vehicle by weight. Although incorporation of multiple, individually
cast, or wrought Mg components into articulated subassemblies appears unlikely in the near-
term, Mg will continue to have a role in vehicle light weighting, predicated on its attractive
features of low density, high specific stiffness, and amenability to thin-wall die casting and
component integration.
Pros: High stiffness and strength, compatible with existing infrastructure for stamping.
Cons: Expensive, lack of availability from U.S. manufacturers in large quantities
to meet automotive needs. Other challenges include ductility, joining, repair, recycling, and
corrosion. Rare earth additives may also be needed to improve energy absorption to meet crash
requirements.

Carbon Fiber Composites

While manufacturers use carbon fiber in high-performance vehicles, the expense of the input
material and process to develop it are generally too high for use in popular models. Despite
being half the weight of steel, carbon fiber composites are four times stronger and have the
potential to reduce vehicle weight by up to 70 percent.
Pros: High stiffness, high strength, enables the manufacture of highly complex shapes, and
offers tremendous weight savings.
Cons: High production cost of carbon fiber and difficulty joining into vehicles, along with
associated challenges in modeling performance, infrastructure, and sufficient amounts of fiber
to meet automotive needs.

Titanium
This high-temperature metal is used in powertrain systems to reduce weight by up to 55
percent. Titanium is also used in valves, springs, suspensions, wheels, and gearbox housings.
Pros: High strength-to-weight ratio, can withstand high temperatures.
Cons: High cost of materials, and formability challenges.

Conclusion
Lightweight structural materials — advanced high strength steel, aluminum, magnesium, and
carbon-fiber polymer composites — enable improvements in fuel economy by providing
properties that are equal to or better than traditional materials, and by providing flexibility in
design that enables additional light weighting. Although each lightweight structural material
has strengths and weaknesses that render it more suitable for certain applications than others,
the most effective way of reducing the overall weight of a vehicle is to use the right
structural material for the right application. Multi-material cross cutting endeavours must
include evaluations of both safety and cost.
 Green Approach for Toughening Thermosetting Reactive
Resins

Thermosetting resins have applications in military aircraft, automotive structures, high

performance trains, and oil exploration and drilling equipment.

Thermosetting reactive resin systems such as epoxy, bismaleimide, and polyimide classes of
material are brittle. The origin of brittleness is attributed to the high crosslinking density that
exists in the fully cured forms of these materials. Traditionally, the toughness of these resins
is enhanced by adding toughening agents such as rubber particles to the initial unreacted
mixture of monomers and solvents. For the toughening of resin matrix fiber-reinforced
composites, an interleafing approach is adopted. The interleafing approach is accomplished by
inserting thermoplastic films (with inherent high toughness) alternately between the stacked
prepreg plies, and then co-curing to form an integrated structural part. The innovation
described herein utilizes a thermal pretreatment technique the green approach to alter the
degree of toughness/brittleness in the thermosetting reactive resins. Unlike the prevailing
methods for toughening resins, the green approach is purely a (physical) thermal pre-treatment
technique, without alternating chemical compositions of the underlying resin system. This
innovative approach is practical and cost-effective in material and labor. It requires no
additional capital investments for equipment. Furthermore, it does not impose weight penalty
to the composite structural component, and is applicable to a broad range of thermosetting
reactive high-performance resin/composite systems. This innovation is both novel and unique
because it toughens the thermosetting reactive resins without altering the original chemical
compositions. Unlike traditional toughening techniques, the green approach provides
flexibility in tailoring the degree of toughness and brittleness in the final fully cured part. This
flexibility in tailoring properties is achieved by varying the thermal pre-treatment conditions
and consequently, the resulting molecular weights. This innovation can be applied to all
thermosetting reactive resins.

In these resin systems, there are two distinct reactions, namely linear chain extension
and crosslinking reactions. Activation energy for the initial chain extension reaction is low,
while it is high for the crosslinking reaction at the later curing stage under elevated
temperatures. The key to this innovation is finding a thermal pre-treatment condition
(temperature and dwell time) that provides intermediate activation
energy for the given resin. This intermediate activation energy is sufficient for continuous
chain extension to occur for a long period of dwell time without triggering the crosslinking
reaction. Fully cured, toughened resin matrix is obtained through crosslinking reaction at
elevated temperatures, which starts with higher MW polymer chains, and results in a network
that possesses low-crosslinking density.